The way of human exposure to formaldehyde

The way of human exposure to formaldehyde

Formaldehyde is widespread in organisms and in nature. Diet, plant decomposition, smoking, etc. will make people contact formaldehyde. At the same time formaldehyde is also one of the byproducts of human metabolism.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) research, the body through the inhalation of formaldehyde exposure may come from many aspects: tree decomposition, car exhaust, smoking, cardboard Release, furniture release, plywood manufacturing and so on. In outdoor, the annual average of formaldehyde in ambient air is between about 1ug / m3 (micrograms / cubic meter) to 20ug / m3 (1ug / m3 = 0.0008ppm). In the peak hours of traffic congestion, formaldehyde content may reach 100ug / m3 , and the indoor formaldehyde content is usually higher than the outdoor. China Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other institutions of the study results show that the Beijing room air formaldehyde content in winter and summer were about 200ug / m3 and 280ug / m3 .

In addition, there will be formaldehyde in food, the Hong Kong Food Safety Center in accordance with the World Health Organization and other literature, in its official website lists a large number of known natural formaldehyde containing food examples: pear in the formaldehyde content of 38.7-60mg / kg (Mg / kg, 1 mg / kg = 1 ppm), cauliflower 26.9 mg / kg, dried mushrooms at 100-406 mg / kg.

WHO estimates that the daily intake of formaldehyde in the 10.55mg / d (mg / day), of which 9.4mg / d from the food, 1mg / d from the inhalation, 0.15mg / d from drinking water. At the same time, formaldehyde is also one of the byproducts of human metabolism. For example, formaldehyde is one of the byproducts of metabolic metabolism of amino acids such as serine, glycine and methionine, so formaldehyde is present in most cells of the human body. The human body produces formaldehyde concentrations of about 2.5 ppm. Because of its biological half cycle of only 1-1.5min, exogenous formaldehyde will not produce accumulation in the human body .